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Just as Cuba celebrates 50 years since dictator Fidel Castro and his bearded companions instituted their revolution, Cubans may be less than thrilled to join the festivities. Long lines formed at the Spanish consulate on December 29, 2008 in Havana as up to 200,000 Cubans are expected to request Spanish citizenship in the next two years. Spain is allowing Cubans who can claim a Spanish grandparent to emigrate to the motherland and henceforth become citizens of the European Union. Passed by the Spanish Congress of Deputies in October 2007, the so-called Law of Historical Memory allows Spanish nationality for the...

RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 22 (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, agreed on Monday to take a common EU-Brazil position to the next G20 summit dealing with the global financial crisis. "We decided with President Lula that things must change and change profoundly," Sarkozy, the current president of the European Union, said in a speech at a two-day EU-Brazil summit in Rio de Janeiro. "We decided to narrow our positions and arrive in London with a common vision, on the future role of the IMF, the system of management of financial...

Prague - Czech President Vaclav Klaus' meeting with leaders of the European Parliament Friday ended in a rift, a transcript of the meeting released by his office showed. The president, who is an outspoken critic of the European Union and its reform treaty, was angered by questions from Daniel Cohn- Bendit, the head of the European Greens. Klaus' aide told reporters after the meeting that the president considers Cohn-Bendit's behaviour 'a big provocation.' According to the transcript, Cohn-Bendit first presented Klaus with an EU flag, which the president has so far refused to hang at his seat, Prague Castle. The...

But with a new Ireland deal done, diplomats have confirmed secret talks on the job description of the EU President and the size of a new European diplomatic service, will now begin – months before the Irish vote again. "Preparatory work can now continue," said a diplomat. William Hague, the shadow Foreign Secretary, said: "It would be a serious mistake to take the Irish people for granted. It would be democratically illegitimate to start putting the renamed EU Constitution into force when the Irish people have yet to give their democratic consent." Candidates for the two top EU jobs will...

Angela Merkel today joined the rest of the EU in signing up to an €200 billion rescue plan for Europe’s economy – as the British ambassador in Berlin complained formally about her finance minister’s outspoken criticism of Gordon Brown’s VAT cut. Mrs Merkel, the German Chancellor, gave her support to an EU-wide recovery plan across the 27 member states, suggesting that she is planning to increase the level of tax cuts in Germany in the New Year as the recession deepens. Jose Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission, called for talks with the incoming US administration of Barack...

POZNAN, Poland (AFP) – US Senator John Kerry, president-elect Barack Obama's point man at UN environment talks in Poland, said on Friday the EU's new climate pact was "an enormous act of leadership" that blazes a path for the entire world. "The EU today said, 'yes, we can and here's how,' and that's pretty good," Kerry told AFP as ministers prepared to wrap up 12 days of talks in Poznan, Poland on preparing a global climate pact to be signed in Copenhagen next December. The pact is "very exciting," he said. "It represents an enormous act of leadership which will...

‘Antimissile shield in Poland provokes Russia’ Italian PM says Created: 13.11.2008 10:35 Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi stated yesterday that the deployment of the US antimissile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic is a “provocation” against Russia. “Let’s speak frankly: we believe that there have been some provocations against the Russian federation such as the project to deploy missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic,” Berlusconi said. Italy’s PM reminded that the Russian president Dmitrij Medvedev’s response to that plan was to announce the deployment of missiles in – as Berlusconi put it – “the Russian enclave in the...

Russia and the EU agreed today to pile pressure on President Bush to accept far-reaching changes to the global financial system at the G-20 summit in Washington. Dmitri Medvedev, the Russian President, said that Russia's ideas were almost identical to those put forward by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, on behalf of the EU. Both men have talked of the need for fundamental changes to post-war institutions such as the International Monetary Fund to take better account of the developing economic powers of the world, while President Bush has appeared reluctant to make major alterations. In a sign that they...

Czech President Vaclav Klaus branded Ireland's foreign minister a hypocrite Wednesday, in an unseemly row threatening to cast a cloud over EU efforts to resolve a crisis triggered by Irish voters. Notoriously eurosceptic Klaus, whose country takes over the European Union's presidency in January, made the comments after Foreign Minister Micheal Martin accused him of "inappropriate" remarks at a meeting with Irish eurosceptics. "Such hypocrisy I cannot accept," Klaus told Czech reporters in Dublin, quoted by the Czech Republic's CTK news agency. "If someone doesn't please me, I will say so to his face -- and not behind his back."...

BERLIN (Reuters) - NATO needs to reach out to Russia and make clear the defence alliance and Moscow will be most effective at fighting the world's security problems if they work together, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday. Merkel said she welcomed the prospect of Georgia and Ukraine becoming members of NATO but warned that neither country would be ready to join "in the foreseeable future". She has at times been a leading critic of Russia, especially on issues like human rights. But on Monday she focused more on the importance of Russia. "I think it is better to...

European Union foreign ministers are hoping to persuade Poland and Lithuania that the EU should resume partnership talks with Russia. "We need and want to work with Russia," the British and Swedish governments said in a joint statement as EU foreign ministers met in Brussels on Monday. The EU suspended talks over Russia's military action in Georgia, but most members now want them to restart. However, Poland and Lithuania say Russia has not complied with a truce. An EU-brokered ceasefire called on Russian and Georgian troops to return to positions held before the war in early August. However, Russia still...

U.S. airlines cry foul over new EU rule Regulation that places tough pollution standards on air carriers may spur legal action against the European Union. By Shelley Emling Cox International Correspondent Saturday, November 08, 2008 London —- A new European Union rule imposing tougher pollution limits on U.S. airlines violates international law and will likely result in a legal challenge, U.S. government officials say. All airlines flying in or out of the EU will have to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, a gas considered a major contributor to global warming, by 3 percent in 2012 and by 5 percent starting...

BRUSSELS: The head of the European Union (EU)'s executive body, the European Commission, on Wednesday congratulated Barack Obama on his victory in th e US presidential election and called on him to work with the EU to shape a "new deal for a new world". "This is a time for a renewed commitment between Europe and the US. I want to assure Senator Obama of the support of the European Commission and of my personal support in forging this renewed commitment to face together the many challenges ahead of us," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said. "We need a...

Britain is preparing to "sell" Georgia and hand a "victory" to Russia by agreeing to start talks on a partnership agreement between Moscow and the European Union, according to senior European diplomats. Only eight weeks ago, Gordon Brown helped persuade other European leaders to punish Russia for its strike into Georgia by postponing talks on a new "Partnership and Cooperation Agreement" with the EU. Aside from verbal condemnation and a general review of the EU's relations with Moscow, this was the only tangible counter-measure imposed on the Kremlin after the war. Both the Prime Minister and David Miliband, the Foreign...

AN EX-KGB spymaster who subjected the British secret service to its worst embarrassment since the Cold War is the right-hand man of Lord Mandelson's controversial Russian friend Oleg Deripaska, the Evening Standard discloses today. Valery Pechenkin was a high-ranking officer in the KGB and a Colonel-General in its successor, the FSB. He is employed as head of security at Deripaska's company Basic Element, but the part he plays in Deripaska's affairs goes far beyond the role suggested by his job title. According to well-placed sources in Moscow, Pechenkin is one of Deripaska's strongest links to the Kremlin. The veteran spy...

French President and EU presidency holder Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday (21 October) unveiled a new cooperation strategy with Russia that would build stronger economic links between Europe and its largest Eastern European neighbour. Speaking in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Sarkozy called Russia "our neighbours" and surprised the audience by alluding to "a common economic space between Russia and the EU". The term recalls the early stages of EU history, which saw the development of a 'common market' that was subsequently renamed the 'single market' in the 1980s. Sarkozy's view of Russia sharing a common economic space marks another step in...

European Union leaders on Thurday demanded swift measures to shield their manufacturers against the threat of a severe economic recession triggered by the global financial meltdown. After long and sometimes sharp discussions, the bloc’s 27 leaders also decided to stick to a December deadline to secure a deal on climate change, but promised to take into account the concerns of Poland and other former communist countries. Wrapping up a two-day summit in Brussels, the leaders said they intended to work with the US and other countries to bring about “a real and complete reform of the international financial system”, based...

EU, US call for global summit to reshape banking as early as next month in New York The Group of Eight major industrial nations announced Wednesday they will hold a global summit -- perhaps as early as November in New York -- to forge common action to prevent another economic meltdown. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said all European Union nations backed radical restructuring of global institutions like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. He called for a meeting "preferably in New York, where everything started" and said it should lead to "a new capitalism." Sarkozy said emerging economies such...

Traditional light bulbs are to be banned from 2010, EU energy ministers have decided. The high energy filament bulbs are being phased out in order to improve energy efficiency and meet climate change targets. The switchover, which will affect all of the European Union's 500 million citizens, was first ordered at a Brussels summit last year as part of an ambitious energy policy to fight climate change. A meeting of EU energy ministers, including the UK's new secretary of state for energy and climate change Ed Miliband decided to go ahead with the ban. The move has previously proved controversial....

Somehow, I doubt that Russia’s latest diplomatic project will gain much traction with its closest European neighbors, but it does at least expose the Russians as something other than allies to the US. Dmitry Medvedev has called on France and other European nations to form an anti-American front. Nicolas Sarkozy declined direct comment: THE President of Russia has called on Europe’s leaders to create a new world order that would minimise the role of the United States. Confident that a row with Europe prompted by Russia’s invasion of Georgia in August was over, Dmitry Medvedev arrived in the French spa...

It is said that Vladimir Lenin once called Soviet sympathizers in Western countries “useful idiots” for unwittingly advancing the cause of revolutionary Russia. Were the Bolshevik leader alive today, he might apply the same label to German environmentalists, whose influence over their country’s energy policy has been an inadvertent, but essential factor in Moscow’s post-Cold War rise. Two decades of stringent environmental regulations have made Germany, Europe’s largest economy, increasingly dependent on natural gas from Russia, the world’s largest exporter. Of course, economic leverage translates seamlessly into political power, and Russia’s sway over German foreign policy has been conspicuous as...

Poland has claimed that it has assembled enough votes to block a landmark EU climate change agreement after spearheading a revolt by Eastern European states that fear the package would increase their dependence on Russian natural gas supplies. A six nation bloc on the EU's eastern fringes signed a pact to fight a proposal designed to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by a fifth by 2020. The target represents the EU's landmark initiative to address the pressures of climate change and would return the continent's output of CO2 to 1990 levels. Poland has led efforts to fend off adoption of...

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard says it is ironic that European banks have turned out to be deeper in debt than their US counterparts. It took a weekend to shatter the complacency of German finance minister Peer Steinbrück. Last Thursday he told us that the financial crisis was an "American problem", the fruit of Anglo-Saxon greed and inept regulation that would cost the United States its "superpower status". By Monday, Mr Steinbrück was having to orchestrate Germany's biggest bank bail-out, putting together a €35 billion loan package to save Hypo Real Estate. By then Europe was "staring into the abyss," he admitted. Belgium...

EU's Mandelson lashes U.S. lawmakers for rejecting plan LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers have "taken leave of their senses" by rejecting a $700 billion (388 billion pound) financial bailout plan, European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said on Monday. The U.S. House of Representatives earlier voted against the plan to help the financial industry in a shock vote that sent global markets sliding and led to recriminations between Republicans and Democrats. "I feel they've taken leave of their senses and I hope that in Europe we will not see politicians and parliamentarians replicating the sort of irresponsibility and political partisanship...

WARSAW, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Eastern members of the European Union said on Friday its tough plans to tackle global warming could force them to rely more on Russian gas and the bloc should be equally ambitious in ensuring their energy security. The EU is pushing through measures aimed at cutting CO2 emissions by a fifth by 2020, compared with 1990 levels, in hopes of averting the worst effects of climate change. But ex-communist EU members such as Warsaw fear such targets will increase their reliance on imports from their former overlord Russia of natural gas, which produces much less...

LOL! Only in Europe would they even think of offering something so odd! hehe

Russian ambassador to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov has said that he expects Bulgaria to block EU sanctions aimed at Russia, website mediapool.bg reported quoting Bulgarian National Radio's correspondent in Brussels. “In order for such a resolution to be taken, which I don’t believe will materialise in the first place, it will need a complete consensus and that of Bulgaria, with every country having the power to decide for itself,” Chizhov was quoted as saying. “I do hope, however, that within the EU common sense will prevail and that Bulgaria will not need to block the unilateral decision,” he added,...

The deal brokered by the European Union for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgia has been slammed by Nato's top official as "not acceptable" because it cedes too much ground to Moscow. As EU foreign ministers prepare today to discuss the accord brokered last week by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Nato's secretary-general, warned that the agreement provided no grounds for the revival of the Nato-Russia relationship. In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr de Hoop Scheffer complained that Russia, which has pledged to withdraw from buffer zones inside Georgia that adjoin South Ossetia...

Russia has strengthened its grip on Europe's energy supply after Serbia's parliament ratified a deal that gives Moscow control of the country's oil and gas industry as well as allowing it to lay a controversial pipeline across Serb territory. Trying to balance its national interest between the West and the East, MPs also agreed to set Serbia on the path towards membership of the European Union. The passage of both bills by large majorities reflects the difficulties faced by Serbia's pro-western government in seeking integration with Europe while maintaining its historic ties with Russia, seen by many Serbs as their...

Europe offered a closer bond to Ukraine and warned Russia to keep its hands off its southwestern neighbour today, but the Union stopped short of promising Kiev future membership for which it yearns. The spectre of new Russian pressure on Ukraine loomed over an EU summit with President Yushchenko, chaired by President Sarkozy of France, a day after he extracted a Russian promise to pull back troops in Georgia. "In the eyes of Europe, the territorial integrity of Ukraine is absolutely non-negotiable," Mr Sarkozy said. But he added that President Medvedev had given him no indication of malicious intent towards...

IN the wake of Russia's ruthless invasion of Georgia, the United States sent relief supplies on military aircraft and ships. Our vice president went to Tbilisi. And we promised a billion dollars in reconstruction aid. The European Union sent a get-well card. With no return address. Washington asked that Georgia and Ukraine be put on the fast track to NATO membership to deter further Russian aggression. The EU suggested sending unarmed civilian observers, instead. The Bush administration begged for a unified front against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's barbarism. Rejecting any penalties for Russia, the EU took the bold step of...

European Union countries agreed yesterday to send Georgia one of the kinds of help it most wants: hundreds of observers to monitor Russia’s compliance with the supposed ceasefire around the two disputed provinces. Otherwise, the summit was limp, as expected, reflecting the failure of the EU to bridge the rift between Germany, an advocate of not provoking Russia, and Britain, (finally) arguing that it should give more help. If there is a useful side to that flight to ambiguity, it is that this is exactly the debate that the EU ought to be having (more important and invigorating than its...

MOSCOW, July 1 (RIA Novosti) - Anatoly Chubais, the head of Russia's electricity monopoly that will cease to exist as of July 1, will help draft a new Russia-EU treaty, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs said on Tuesday. The Russian power sector has undergone radical changes in recent years aimed at increasing the efficiency of power plants and developing the industry by attracting investment. During the restructuring process, specialized structures have been created in place of the old vertically integrated companies. Chubais will head a non-profit partnership, which the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs will set up,...

Russia, EU launch talks on new strategic relations09:45' 28/06/2008 (GMT+7) European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister Janez Jansa of Slovenia and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana (R-L) meet the media after the two-day Russia-EU summit in Khanty-Mansiysk, central Russia, June 27, 2008. Russia and the EU announced here Friday that they will open talks on new strategic relations in coming days.(Xinhua Photo) The Russia-EU summit concluded Friday in Russia's West Siberian city of Khanty-Mansiysk, with the issuing of a joint statement saying that Russia and the European Union (EU) will hold the...

Computer translation European Union (EU) decided void in this Thursday, the diplomatic sanctions imposed on the Cuban regime since 2003 and open an unconditional dialogue with the leaders of the Caribbean island. A medida, adotada durante um jantar realizado durante cúpula de chefes de Estado e de Governo do bloco, que aconteceu em Bruxelas, será revista dentro de um ano. The measure, adopted at a dinner held during summit of Heads of State and Government of the bloc, which took place in Brussels, will be reviewed within a year. The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the EU decided unanimously to...

Britain has become the 19th European Union country to ratify the Lisbon Treaty without a referendum, after the EU Amendment Bill completed its passage through Parliament. A last-ditch Conservative attempt to delay ratification until the autumn was voted down in the House of Lords by a margin of 93, and peers later gave the Bill its third reading without a vote. Eurosceptic members of the European Parliament display posters calling on the EU to respect the outcome of Ireland's recent vote Royal Assent is expected to follow within 24 hours. Parliamentary ratification came on the eve of an EU summit...

Ministers insist other countries must ratify deal despite Ireland's 'no' vote Germany and France moved to isolate Ireland in the European Union yesterday, scrambling for ways to resuscitate the Lisbon Treaty a day after the Irish dealt the architects of the EU's new regime a crushing blow. Refusing to take Ireland's 'no' for an answer, politicians in Berlin and Paris prepared for a crucial EU summit in Brussels this week by trying to ringfence the Irish while demanding that the treaty be ratified by the rest of the EU. The scene is now set for a major clash between the...

Serbia's nationalist parties are softening their anti-European Union stance for the sake of a coalition deal with the kingmaker Socialist Party, which could be signed soon, officials said on Thursday. An inconclusive May 11 election left Serbia split between hardliners led by the Radical Party of Tomislav Nikolic and liberals led by the Democratic Party of President Boris Tadic. The Socialists of late autocrat Slobodan Milosevic hold the key to any coalition. The party, which insists on closer ties with the EU, has been negotiating a coalition with the Radicals and the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) for almost three...

Behind closed doors, over diplomatic dinners, in the corridors of departments, embassies, ministries and chanceries, Europe’s rulers are playing a “once in a lifetime” game for the future of the European Union. As I have already noted, here and here, this is a power play to which the public is not even a spectator. Substantial negotiations are underway on the biggest European job carve up package, including Nato, in the EU’s existence. The rules of the game, the players and the running score are known only to a tiny group of EU leaders and their most senior civil servants. The...

Outgoing Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said Monday he had turned down a Gazprom offer to become chairman of the South Stream natural-gas pipeline, which will pump as much as 30 billion cubic meters of Russian gas into the European market. The 560-mile, €10 billion ($15.6 billion) pipeline -- a 50-50 joint venture between Gazprom and Italian oil-and-gas-giant Eni SpA -- is politically sensitive because it would deepen Europe's reliance on Russian gas and is seen as a rival to a U.S.-backed pipeline. A spokesman for Mr. Prodi said the prime minister, who is slated to step down when a...

BRUSSELS -- Can communism be compared to Nazism? Does communism's record deserve as unequivocal a condemnation as that of Nazism? And should communism's modern-day adherents and apologists be rejected as firmly by Europe's political mainstream as those of Nazism? The debate over the historical record of communism simmers on in the European Union. Forced onto the bloc's agenda by its new ex-communist member states, the issue was most recently broached at a European Parliament debate in Strasbourg on April 21. Reflecting deep-seated divisions among member states and political camps, the parliament ultimately failed to agree on a common declaration. Some...

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Several members of the European Parliament have called on the EU to formally recognise crimes committed by Stalinist regimes and compensation for its victims on the same terms as victims of the Nazis. On the first evening of the week's Strasbourg plenary on Monday (21 April), MEPs held a hearing on "crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by totalitarian regimes", organised in response to a request by EU justice ministers. In April last year, EU justice ministers agreed to make incitement to racism and xenophobia a crime across the 27-nation bloc. The...

Secret plans reveal the South of England will be renamed TRANSMANCHE — and governed in part by bureaucrats based in France. Two more “Transnational” zones are also being set up to “promote the territorial agenda” of the EU. The ATLANTIC REGION — stretching thousands of miles from the northern tip of Scotland to southern Spain — will take in western England and Wales, along with parts of Portugal and France. And the NORTH SEA REGION will cover chunks of eastern England and eastern Scotland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Holland, and the Flemish part of Belgium. The Atlantic will have its headquarters...

Realtor Complains Lack of Global Warming Hurting Business Photo of Noel Sheppard. By Noel Sheppard | April 16, 2008 - 15:12 ET Imagine for a moment you're an upscale realtor in the exclusive southeastern part of France called "Provence" driving around with a couple of well-healed prospective buyers hoping to see gorgeous vistas on a sunny, April day only to get caught in a snow storm. What would you do? Well, the manager of a British real estate company called VEF, whose office is in Haute Provence, was so angered by this that he wrote a complaint letter to the...

(Note: be sure to read Alex K.'s illuminating response to the points I raise below.)Just a passing question. The Wall Street Journal is opposed to statism, yes? Has the Journal raised jeremiads against, warned about, opposed, criticized, or even mildly questioned Europe's steady march toward a quasi-totalitarian superstate subsuming the ancient states of Europe? Offhand, I'm not aware that the Journal or of any mainstream "conservative" publication have stood against this impending horror. In the same way, the "conservatives" are evidently going along with John "Patriot" McCain's newly minted internationalism, including his support for the Security and Prosperity Partnership of...

BRUSSELS – Efforts by ex-Soviet Ukraine and Georgia to start early talks on NATO membership took a knock on Thursday as allies disagreed on whether to embark on moves that would risk antagonising Russia. Separately, NATO foreign ministers backed the aspirations of a trio of Western Balkan countries – Croatia, Albania and Macedonia – to join the Western defence pact, but a cloud remained over Macedonia's bid as Greece threatened to block it in a long-standing row over its name. Diplomats said Germany and France led resistance by half a dozen western European nations to a push by eastern ex-communist...

To be fair, it was a tricky one. The European Union's sports ministers gathered in Slovenia for one of their scheduled meetings to discuss whatever it is EU sports ministers discuss: the parlous state of Danish hockey; whether Geoff Hurst's second goal actually crossed the line; the subsidy regime for Maltese polo. And would you believe it, those wretched Tibetans go and start a ballyhoo in Lhasa, practically daring the Chinese to crack down. What were the sports ministers to do? Naturally, they were out of their depth on issues of substance. We know this because they are sports ministers,...

Tibet is in the news. Chinese troops in Lhasa are violently suppressing demonstrations that commemorate the rising 49 years ago which forced the Dalai Lama into exile. Meanwhile, on the country's northern edge, six months of snow and record low temperatures have created a catastrophe in the Chinese province of Chingai. According to China's official news agency, 500,000 animals have died and three million people face starvation. When a similar if much smaller crisis 10 years ago hit Ladakh, in northern Kashmir, thousands of lives were saved by the expert intervention of a British charity, ApTibet, working with the Dalai...

Paris - Russia wants to be part of the EU peacekeeping force deployed in Chad to protect refugees from the neighbouring crisis region of Darfur, Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said Tuesday in Paris. Serdyukov said that Moscow had decided to make transport helicopters available to the 3,700-strong EUFOR force deployed in February near Sudan's western border with Chad. Serdyukov came to Paris with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to hold talks with their French counterparts, Herve Morin and Bernard Kouchner. Kouchner said that during France's EU presidency, which begins July 1, he wants to see a strategic partnership agreement...

BRUSSELS, March 6 (Reuters) - European Union leaders will receive a stark warning next week of potential conflict with Russia over energy resources at the North Pole as global warning melts the ice cap and aggravates international security threats. A report to the leaders by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and the executive European Commission describes climate change as "a threat multiplier", which will exacerbate many existing tensions and heighten instability. "A further dimension of competition for energy resources lies in potential conflict over resources in Polar regions which will become exploitable as a consequence of global warming," the...